Making sense (and, sometimes, nonsense) out of Current News, Issues, Politics

Monday, March 20, 2017

Trump's Tax Return: Who Is Mailbox-Man?

Rachel Maddow has deservedly taken a lot of heat since over-hyping the release of two summary pages from Donald Trump's 2005 tax return. Some say the release actually benefited Trump by showing that he paid $38 million in taxes that year. Because of this, some have even concluded that Trump himself, released the information.

What I find more interesting however, is why a relatively unknown economics/business writer by the name of David Cay Johnston would wind up with these copies that were supposedly and conveniently, slipped into his "mailbox". Thus, the unknown delivery man can't be prosecuted for illegally obtaining and distributing Trump's tax return. Still, why Johnston; when there are so many other better-known media types, better able to make the contents of Trump's return known publicly? Well, the answer to that question is that Johnston is essentially a Trump and rich people hater.

In 2016, Johnston published a book titled "The Making of Donald Trump". A book reviewer at the Boston Globe said it was: "a chronicle of mobsters and mistresses, shady construction deals and
financial shenanigans, monumental projects and miserable (and possibly
illegal) business practices". In fact, when Johnston first met Trump in 1988, he negatively referred to him as "P.T. Barnum"; the man most associated with the phrase: "There is a sucker is born every minute." However, a better insight as to why Trump's return would be so relevant to Johnston comes from two other books he authored:

"Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill"

So, when you look at the numbers in that return, they perfectly fit the type of individual that Johnston portrays in those two books. Trump actually made a quarter of a billion dollars in 2005, but only paid taxes on $153 million of it because of deductions that favored himself and his business. Deductions that, in Johnston's eyes, are only available to a very rich person. That's the real story behind the release of Trump's tax return and why Johnston had access to it. But, understand, those deductions were all legal. Things that the political left constantly and falsely claims as being loopholes.

Johnston's "paper trail" of writings convinces me that, perhaps he had something to do with the illegal acquisition of those two-pages. I have no proof of that, and conveniently, Johnston's claim that he found them in his mailbox lets him off the hook legally. Still, something doesn't smell right about it.